Reminds me of that 1951 story by AC Clarke called Superiority. "...The Better is often the enemy of the Good_and the Best can be the enemy of both, as it is always too late..."
JD ----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Wallis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, June 08, 2004 7:44 PM Subject: Re: [ERPS] Re: Multiple engines (was RE: Liquox) > On Tue, Jun 08, 2004 at 10:29:35AM -0700, Pierce Nichols wrote: > > > I suspect that the small variations in thrust characteristics of the > > four engines will require some constant deflection of the jet vanes. > > This will in turn increase the power requirements and increase the > > steering losses, not to mention wear on the jet vanes themselves. I > > think it would be more efficient to go to 1-axis gimballing on each > > engine; it's easy enough with a single room-temp propellant. > > The big DISadvantage to gimballing is the technology required to make > it work reliably. Given the purpose and time deadline, I suspect that > jumping into a new development cycle at this stage is far more of a > problem than getting the existing and working technology fine tuned. > There's an old addage that says: > > The better is the enemy of the good. > > If John feels he has a working system that will get him to his goal > with a bit more tweaking, I suspect that's where he'll put his effort > and resources. > > Michael > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > Michael Wallis KF6SPF (408) 396-9037 [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > "And I keep praying that this faith we hold in common keeps showing up > in the good things we do, and that people recognize Christ in all of > it." Philemon 1:6 > _______________________________________________ > ERPS-list mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://lists.erps.org/mailman/listinfo/erps-list > _______________________________________________ ERPS-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.erps.org/mailman/listinfo/erps-list
